The Canadiens defenseman is both the reigning Norris Trophy winner and the most-hated player in hockey, as voted by a Sports Illustrated player poll last year. He’s a dual personality, at one moment dazzling a forward with his dangles unheard of from a blue-liner, then at the next putting his stick in the same forward’s skates and acting like nothing happened. It’s all done with a huge smile on his face that brings cheers from his fans and scowls from everyone else.

Subban is a lightning rod for attention. The 24-year-old is the easiest player to hate in the league.

On the eve of the Bruins’ second-round series with the Habs, set to start Thursday night at TD Garden, Bruins winger and Subban nemesis Brad Marchand was asked what he expects from seven long games going nose-to-nose with No. 76 in the Bleu-Blanc-et-Rouge program. Marchand’s answer told both sides of the Subban coin.

"He's one of the top D-men in the league," Marchand said. "He plays an all-around game, he's very physical and he's very good with the puck. We're not going to treat him differently from any other player. We've just got to play our game. Whenever we do get a chance to hit him, we do want to hit him, but we can't get sucked into his game. That's what he does, he gets guys off their game. We can't allow ourselves to get sucked into that."

So how do you not get pulled into reacting to Subban?

"I think you've just got to skate away," Marchand said. "He likes to come in after whistles and grab guys and hit guys. I think the biggest thing is just skate away from it. A lot of slew foots during the game. So you can't complain about that. You've just got to skate away and hopefully the refs will see that. He does play hard, he battles and that's always frustrating when you play guys like that."

Subban is hardly the only Hab looking to push distracting Red-and-Blue thoughts into Black-and-Gold heads. Alexei Emelin, Brendan Gallagher, Andrei Markov and Tomas Plekanec will all try to do it in their own ways. None are as good as Subban at it.

Subban is always in the middle of a fracas. He plays with contagious energy, allowing his teammates to play with more courage. Agitating and embellishing define his game.

The Bruins' best players will be Subban's target. He'll bump, grind and pester Milan Lucic, David Krejci and Marchand until they react. It's a skill to put the other team's No. 1 players in the penalty box.

Yet Subban was also fifth in the NHL points by a defenseman this season with 53. He won the Norris last season on the strength of his 38 points in 42 games. Subban’s slap shot is as difficult to stop as Zdeno Chara’s, and is more accurate.

Subban embarrassed the Lightning during the Habs’ first-round sweep, posting five assists in four games. In Game 3, Subban gave the Canadiens the lead for good with a controlled, explosive and skilled play.

Taking the puck at the right point, Subban threatened to shoot as Tampa Bay rookie Ondrej Palat rushed at him. When Palat took away the shooting lane, Subban spun away towards the middle of the ice, then carried the puck down the left wing as Palat pursued. Holding the puck away from his body but securely on his stick, Subban cut sharply behind the net; Palat tripped on the netting trying to follow.

Then Subban swung back on the other side of goalie Anders Lindback, stopped short when Andrej Sustr threatened to contain him, and dished through the slot for Gallagher’s one-timer.

The puck was on Subban’s stick for 10 seconds. The Three Stooges music could have played as the Lightning tried to remove it.

"There's some stuff he's probably the best in the league at," Bruins defenseman Dougie Hamilton said. "Protecting the puck, taking the puck to the backhand and using his arm, his shot and his passing and vision — it's really good. It's fun to watch him. Hopefully we can kind of take his game away."

It’s hard enough taking away one part of a player’s game. With Subban, the task is to minimize two.

Dan Cagen can be reached at 508-626-3848 or dcagen@wickedlocal.com. Follow him on Twitter @DanCagen.

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